Ossetian Ritual Feasts and Transpersonal Experience: Re-Description of a Religion as a Religious Practice

The protest of the North Ossetian nativist religious movement against discourses of dominant institutions in the public sphere involves as its necessary component ‘re-description’ of religion in general and ‘re-constructed’ religious systems in particular. Usually, this means revealing allegedly forgotten ancient meanings of indigenous customs, rituals and folklore texts through the use of various concepts taken from esotericism and/or practical psychology. The language for this re-description is provided by conceptual apparatus developed by New Age movements. Of particular interest in this respect is the language of ‘new science’, ‘alternative history’, ‘transpersonal psychology’, etc., employed as a tool for criticising the established system of Christian-centric understanding of what religion is and what its social functions are.

A POET ON THE OTHER BANK: POETICS OF AFFECT IN THE PROSE BY BOHDAN IHOR ANTONYCH

The is the second paper of the two-part study examining the ‘unwritten novel’ “On the Other Bank” by Bohdan Ihor Antonych, a notable Western Ukrainian writer of the interwar period. Known primarily for his poetry, Antonych did not finish this novel-in-progress, leaving behind only draft notes, that offer a glimpse into the very process of his writing. Analyzed from the perspective of genetic criticism, Antonych’s manuscripts are treated as an avant-text, demonstrating a ‘scenario of writing’ in the transition from the novel of action to the novel of state. In contrast to his image-based poetry Antonych’s prose rests on the technique of description. Depicting nature or the urban environment, the author conveys a certain emotional and psychological condition. Paying special attention to qualitative adjectives, he appeals to the sensory experience of the reader. Despite the fact that the plan of the novel indicates the main events of the plot, the author mainly captures the emotions of the characters. Dialogues also play an unusual role in the text, as their function is expressive rather than a communicative one. Since the dynamics of the text is based on emotional and psychological movement, and not on the sequence of events or judgments, it is considered to be an example of affective poetics in Ukrainian modern literature. Affect appears in Antonych’s text as force and tension. It shapes the human personality and at the same time challenges it. Affect goes beyond discursiveness and captures the body; its intensity is expressed through the voice and speed. Antonych’s characters share a common transpersonal experience in their childhood and a common object of desire after becoming adults. Moreover, the transfer of emotions into the sphere of interpersonal relations gives the affect not only a psychological but also an ethical dimension. Analyzing Antonych’s manuscript, the author of the paper focuses on the dynamics of writing, not on the one of the plot, and finds grounds for conclusions about the affective nature of Antonych’s prose. It is evident that in the ‘unwritten novel’ “On the Other Bank” Antonych depicts the modernist type of literary character as homo sentiens, who perceives the world in a subtle way and experiences it deeply.

A poet on the other bank: processual writing in the prose by Bohdan Ihor Antonych

The study examines the ‘unwritten novel’ “On the Other Bank” by Bohdan Ihor Antonych, a notable Western Ukrainian writer of the interwar period. Known primarily for his poetry, Antonych did not finish this novel-in-progress, leaving behind only draft notes, which offer a glimpse into the very process of his writing. Analyzed from the perspective of genetic criticism, Antonych’s manuscripts are treated as an avant-text, demonstrating a ‘scenario of writing’ in the transition from the novel of action to the novel of state. In contrast to his image-based poetry, Antonych’s prose is based on the technique of description. Depicting nature or the urban environment, the author conveys a certain emotional and psychological condition; and paying special attention to qualitative adjectives, he appeals to the sensory experience of the reader. Despite the fact that the plan of the novel indicates the main events of the plot, the author mainly captures the emotions of the characters. Dialogues also play an unusual role in the text as their function is an expressive rather than a communicative one. Since the dynamics of the text are based on emotional and psychological movement, and not on the succession of events or judgments, it is considered to be an example of affective poetics in Ukrainian modern literature. The affect appears in Antonych’s text as a force and tension. It shapes the human personality and at the same time challenges it. The affect goes beyond discursiveness and captures the body while its intensity is expressed through the voice and speed. Antonych’s characters share a common transpersonal experience in their childhood and a common object of desire after becoming adults. Moreover, the transfer of emotions into the sphere of interpersonal relations gives to the affect not only a psychological but also an ethical dimension. The researcher analyzes Antonych’s manuscript focusing on the dynamics of writing and not on the dynamics of the plot, and this approach gives reason for the conclusion about the affective nature of Antonych’s prose. It is evident that in the ‘unwritten novel’ “On the Other Bank” Antonych depicts the modernist type of literary character as ‘homo sentiens’, who perceives the world in a subtle way and experiences it deeply.

Methods of Exploring Transpersonal Lucid Dreams: Ineffability and Creative Consciousness

Lucid dreaming is being conscious and aware while dreaming. Lucid dreaming is a form of meta-consciousness and reflective practice that calls in to question habitual behavior, fixed perceptions, core beliefs, and presuppositions. From an epistemological perspective, lucid dreaming could be considered as a way of knowing. The practice of lucid dreaming ultimately leads to the practice of lucid waking, creating a recursive relationship between waking and dreaming awareness. This article discusses three research methods exploring lucid dreaming and specific transpersonal experiences within lucid dreaming I call “Hyperspace Lucidity”. Hyperspace Lucidity is the experience within lucid dreams beyond time and space, transpersonal in nature, nondual, nonrepresentational in content, and at times, extraordinary and impactful. These inquiries were conducted over two decades, however, their significance and implications are becoming relevant today as the topic of lucid dreaming is discussed within psychological and spiritual frameworks. Each research project informed the next. It began with quantitative research designed to explore the transpersonal experiences in lucid dreams, expanded into a phenomenological study including some of the lucid dreamers from the first study, and then finally it evolved into an art-based inquiry involving the public. KEYWORDS Dreaming, transpersonal experience, dream signs, creative consciousness, research.

TRANSFORMATION AND INTERPRETATION OF GENDER CONCEPTS IN METAPHYSICAL DIMENSION: FROM CONTEMPLATIVE WORLDVIEW TO TRANSPERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Purpose of the study: Verbalization of concepts in the artistic dimension is of great significance in the study of the metaphysical view of the world. This study is undertaken to identify and describe the principal ways of transformation and interpretation of verbalized concepts with gender features, in particular the concept of WOMAN, in the poetic discourse of the Metaphysicals. Methodology: It is based on the combination of research strategies of an interdisciplinary approach with the methods of interpretive, linguistic-stylistic, hermeneutic, and imagological analysis. Adopting the methods of interpretive analysis of literary writings in the gender dimension allows us to greatly broaden the applicable scope of them. Main findings: Gender concepts analysis based on the seventeenth-century English metaphysical poetry can be of great importance since the functioning and transformation of the sphere of concepts are complicated by metaphorical, symbolic, and linguistic ambivalence – an essential element of artistic practices of the Metaphysicals. Verbalization of the concepts of MAN and WOMAN actualise a particular way of transforming and conveying the basic features of the conceptual system of gender through the lens of dialectical thinking. Application of the study: The analysis of gender concepts in poetry appears to be an embranchment of relevant and influential gender studies contributing to such fields of humanities as literary studies, linguistics, and philosophy, cultural and religious studies. This emphasizes an interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary approach. Novelty/Originality: The means of interpretive analysis help achieve objectification of the gender sphere of concepts in the metaphysical dimension that becomes a crucial means of representation of the linguistic worldview. Since the verbalization of gender concepts and gender considerations in the poetry of the Metaphysicals, and especially in John Donne's, is not always explicit, the study of them at the imagery level allows revealing even implicit concepts, in particular gender ones, arising from mental activity, spiritual life, and transpersonal experience. In metaphysical poetry, the word is considered a means of contemplating reality and transcending beyond it.

Tradition of Transformative Initiation in Taoism and the Concept of xian

This paper focuses on the characteristics of one of the key types of Taoist tradition – хian, which is usually inaccurately translated as “immortal”. Based on a number of texts of Taoist traditions Lingbao, Shanqing and Quanzhen, the paper shows that the acquisition of the state of xianhood is not connected with physical immortality, but based on the deep transformative and transpersonal experience. The practitioner goes through a series of transformative stages, each of which, depending on the particular school, includes a set of spiritual practices aimed at achieving absolute peace and self-deactualization. Such reincarnation is also accompanied by the acquisition of a bright “light”, getting a “shining spirit”, immersion into a “deep dream” that is associated with a strong insight experience. In some cases, it could be regarded as the self-rebirth in the true form (the state of the “true man”): passing through the stage of “dying of the previous body” and rebirth in the new one, as well as going to the “distant wanderings”, which typologically can be defined as a special type of rites of passage and passing through a system of consecrated rituals.